Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?

ePub vs. pdf

jellby has posted a very succinct resume of the different strengths of epub and pdf in this thread, and i thought it would be appropriate to add it here since it's a question which arises frequently.

the original poster wanted to know whether epub could rival the complex layout features of pdfs, and why it's a better format in general for ebooks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

Good PDFs are designed to look great at a single page size. Everything fits on the page, the paragraphs are broken at the right places, there are no widows or orphans, illustrations or tables appear where they are needed, vertical spacing is adjusted to make the page look right, etc.

Good ePUBs are made to look good at every (most) page sizes, font sizes, etc. The page won't look "perfect", but it will be good enough and, more important, it will look equally good if you cange the size, the preferences, etc. And you could even disable illustrations

For your own use (fixed parameters), there is nothing you can do with ePUB that you cannot do with PDF, and there are things you can do with PDF that are not possible with ePUB.

As soon as you send the files to others, since they'll have different tastes, needs, devices, etc., there are things they can do to the ePUB that they cannot do to the PDF.

A presentation from BookNet Canada Technology Forum, Toronto, March 2009.

Michael Smith's presentation on EPUB ~ What a difference a year makes ~ Adoption of a Digital Standard

Mr. Smith needs a bit more practise doing presentations, but some interesting stats and graphics shown. I was almost expecting to see Calibre mentioned in one of his charts regarding conversion, but alas, no. (Mr Smith is executive director of the International Digital Publishing Forum - I'm not sure if he is connected to Hachette or not.)

Pioneer Library System has expanded its selection of electronic books available through its virtual library. The library system added Adobe EPUB eBooks that are compatible with the Sony Reader devices. Library cardholders can access the virtual library through Pioneer’s Web site, www.pls.lib.ok.us.

An eBook is a digital version of a print book that has been formatted for on-screen reading. It is viewable on a computer or can be downloaded to a portable reading device.

anyway... one thought that occurred to me while reading this thread is: why would epub be difficult or "computationally expensive" for any portable device that isn't ancient? epub is simply xhtml and css--the same as any webpage. however, because epub doesn't have javascript, flash, or nearly as many images as a webpage, i would imagine it would render faster than a webpage. also, smartphones and such--portable devices--can display webpages just fine, including reflowable and resizable text on a variety of screen sizes (and sizes of browser windows). so why would an epub be any different?

extending that thought... why is creating an epub reading system so difficult? epub files are basically just simple webpages of text. any reader just has to use a copy of webkit or gecko or some other open-source renderer to make an epub reading system that supports far more advanced things than are required by the epub specs. reading systems may perhaps simply need to add a few "hacks" to create reader-specific thing, perhaps something related to pagination or whatnot.

Hi! I've been reading the posts here for the first time because i just got my new Sony 600 reader and Sony sent me a message that they're switching to Epub for the books they sell and I wanted to know how it's different from .pdf, which I've been using for the books I've downloaded from Gutenburg. Is it actually better than PDF and if so, how? Can I use it for converting books from Microsoft format (I haven't figured out that one yet), and will it support color? I ask this because I know that Sony has been working on a color reader for at least 5 years and since I like to read gardening books, color is important to me.

I've found much of the discussion here pretty technical (I'm a beginner at this topic), so please keep it fairly simple. What is DRM anyway? Folks keep referring to it.

Hi! I've been reading the posts here for the first time because i just got my new Sony 600 reader and Sony sent me a message that they're switching to Epub for the books they sell and I wanted to know how it's different from .pdf, which I've been using for the books I've downloaded from Gutenburg. Is it actually better than PDF and if so, how?

PDF was not intended to be an eBook format. It is a digital representation of a specific size physical page - that's something that it does very well. The problem with PDF is that you have to create your PDF file for a specific sized display page, and there's no good way to display it different sized screens. Eg, if you create a PDF that's optimized for a 6" screen, then it's going to look pretty bad on a 10" screen.

An ePub book is basically a collection of HTML pages in a "wrapper" and, just like any web page, it can adapt itself to different sized screens by "rearranging" itself (this is called "reflow") to fit the screen. It's a much, much better idea when you're dealing with devices with differently-sized screens. Plus, you can change the font size and do all sorts of other things that you just can't do with a PDF file.

Quote:

Can I use it for converting books from Microsoft format (I haven't figured out that one yet),

Yes.

Quote:

and will it support color? I ask this because I know that Sony has been working on a color reader for at least 5 years and since I like to read gardening books, color is important to me.

Yes, it supports colour.

Quote:

I've found much of the discussion here pretty technical (I'm a beginner at this topic), so please keep it fairly simple. What is DRM anyway? Folks keep referring to it.

DRM is "digital rights management" - the "encryption" technology that's used to "lock" an eBook to a particular user's devices. Some people don't like it. Personally, I'm not bothered.

Harry, I'm curious why DRM doesn't bother you. Is it that you don't normally want to pass your books on to other people? Or, is that you know how to remove the DRM without much effort? Or do you think people should pay to read a book every time? Or is it something else entirely?

(Yes, Zelda, I know this is somewhat off topic, but since I just spent an hour reading this whole thread, trying to digest the epub info in order to figure out which way to go with my Cybook upgrade, I feel "entitled" - )